‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Is Fighting Off a Sophomore Slump by Focusing on Its Strongest Relationship

There is a scene in The West Wing‘s third season, in the middle of President Bartlet’s re-election campaign, when press-secretary C.J. turns to senior-staffer Sam and says “I know exactly how [Bartlet’s opponent] Ritchie is gonna win this election.” I bring this up not because The West Wing has all that much in common with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (besides the both of them being great and in a perfect world both would feature Tovah Feldshuh playing the main character’s mom), but because it’s a statement that reflects how I felt about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend going into its second season. I knew exactly how it was going to fall into a sophomore slump. Think about what it was up against:

The lofty expectations that await a buzzy first-season hit, especially one that defined itself as being different than any other show on TV

A time-slot move (to Friday nights)

Ending its first season by making a fundamental shift in the love triangle that had set up shop at the center of the show.

This last one was perhaps the most dangerous of them all. At the end of its first-season finale, Rebecca (after getting the blow-off from an insecure and boozed-up Greg) found Josh (who’d just as recently been dumped by Valencia), and the two exes finally got down to it and had sex, paying off a whole season’s worth of pining and scheming and sexual tension. And so when CXG returned for season 2, Rebecca and Josh were now together, trying their best (in fits and starts) to build something of a relationship. The problem, though, was that after a whole season of watching the triangle played out, we wanted Greg to win. This is purely anecdotal evidence, of course, but, as played by Santino Fontana, Greg has proved himself to be the funnier, more self-aware, more sympathetic of Rebecca’s two guys, and for most of season 1, he was the one who was actually single. Rebecca’s relationship with Josh was always going to feel a little dirty, if only because it was the payoff to a lot of bad decisions by Rebecca.

But, fine. Rebecca and Josh it is. They may not be perfect together, but that could be the fun (not to mention dramatic tension) of the new season, seeing what comes after the end of the rainbow. But THEN, merely two episodes into JoBecca world order, Greg shows up again, newly sober after AA, and looking fine as hell. And Rebecca notices. The love triangle was back on. Which was a troubling sign, perhaps indicative of a show that wasn’t sure how to move forward without backsliding into storylines of the past. The silver lining was that the show was seemingly figuring out that it’s Greg who’s the one we all want for Rebecca. Right?

Then came the news that I honestly thought meant disaster: Santino Fontana was leaving the show. When Greg made his exit to go and attend school and get himself out of his West Covina rut … he meant it. As was explained to Vulture, Fontana’s contract was just for one season, and since The CW didn’t announce its pick-up of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend until late, he’d already booked theater and film gigs. So. No Greg. For the rest of the season. No more love triangle, and the only one Rebecca has to pine for now is a Josh who just proved to be a singularly crappy boyfriend. Danger, Steven Karp!

As it turns out, I should have had more faith in co-creators Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna. Faced with the lemons of losing Fontana and his deep reserves of romantic charm, Bloom decided to pivot the series away from romance for a minute … and towards what as truly been the best relationship on the show: BFFs Rebecca and Paula. Quietly and without calling a whole lot of attention to itself, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend had laid the groundwork for fissures in the Rebecca/Paula friendship. This goes back all the way to last season, when Paula’s over-investment in Rebecca’s love life led her to some scary Mama Rose places:

In season 2, those fissures spread. There was Paula making the decision to stop scheming on behalf of Rebecca’s love life … for her own good. This was followed by Paula’s empowering decision to apply for law school. In both those respects, Paula was seeking to better herself by (intentionally or not) moving farther away from Rebecca. Part of this was the show having faith that Donna Lynne Champlin could carry storyline on her own, which she can, because she’s amazing. Look no further than Paula’s quietly affecting abortion storyline. She declined to tell Rebecca about her abortion after getting the vibe that Rebecca was more interested in her own problems (ding-ding-ding!). At the same time, Rebecca made strides with former frenemy Heather (moving in together) and former enemy Valencia. This drifting came to a head in last week’s episode, which by no coincidence was the best of the season so far. Rebecca’s new girl-squad friendship with Heather and Valencia has been fantastic …

… but it’s yet another development that has kept Paula distant.And that distance finally got addressed, though predictably it was a Rebecca scheme that brought all four women together. Kudos to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend for realizing that Rebecca and Paula’s friendship means a LOT to the audience, and watching Rebecca self-destructively scheme about that relationship is just as compelling as watching her scheme for Josh.

The mark of a show that is defying its sophomore slump is that it’s finding fun new ways for its characters to grow and change. In just a few short episodes, what had once looked like a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend spinning its wheels now looks like a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that knows just how valuable its supporting women are. Well done.